


Threats and Theatrics

by htruona (circhester)



Series: Apparently Humorous LU One-Shots [4]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Crack, Four is a theatre kid and you CANNOT change my mind, Gen, God.. these dramatic fucking bastards, Humour, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), crack with feelings, thats not an actual tag but it's relevant okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-22 15:03:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22717912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/circhester/pseuds/htruona
Summary: "I did a stupid fucking thing," Shadow said bluntly, wincing. "I need your help."Four, when faced with a friend in need, is more than happy to provide that help—possible betrayal of several parties, spontaneous dramatic performances, and a general path of chaos left in his wake aside. Well, at least nobody could ever say that he didn't go all out.
Relationships: Four (Linked Universe) & Shadow Link, Shadow Link & Vio Link
Series: Apparently Humorous LU One-Shots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1676488
Comments: 90
Kudos: 534





	Threats and Theatrics

**Author's Note:**

> Taking a small break from my (long) WIP to write this, and wow, I had a _blast_. This was my first-ever proper live write in the discord!! Thanks @ everyone there for cheering me on! This wouldn't have been nearly as fun without you all. <3

“Um, uh,” a voice—an awfully, terribly _familiar_ voice—said from behind him. “Hi?”

Four whirled around to the shadows, accentuated by the dim light of the fire now behind him, and felt his heart stop. Standing there was someone he hadn’t seen for what simultaneously felt like years and just yesterday, someone who graced his every dream and haunted his every nightmare. That stupid, familiar face, the one he saw in the mirror every day, that—

“I did a stupid fucking thing,” Shadow said bluntly, wincing. “I need your help.”

Four blinked once. Twice. Three times, and then four—the pattern was obvious. 

Then, after an eternity, his frozen, racing thoughts caught up with reality.

“What the fuck,” he said, breathless. “What the _fuck_ , Shadow, you’re supposed to be dead—”

Shadow shrugged. “Well, evidently, I’m _not_ dead,” he said casually. 

Four didn’t know if he wanted to scream, cry, or punch him in the face. Probably all of them, at the same time. 

“Yeah, sorry,” Shadow continued, either oblivious to (highly unlikely) or completely ignoring (much more likely) his plight. “The whole death thing changed like last week. Wish I could’ve told you earlier, but hey, shit happened, and because of said shit I’ve done some really stupid fucking shit, so, uh, please help me.”

After inhaling deeply to _try_ and get a hold of his emotions before he woke up everyone in the camp and got Shadow killed, Four sighed. “What did you do?” he asked.

Shadow winced. “Uh, I—” he began. “Wait, which part are you? You’re…”

“I’m all of them,” Four answered simply. 

Shadow blinked. “In hindsight the tunic should have made that obvious,” he said. 

Four nodded, wondering how Shadow hadn't figured that out sooner, before his mind circled back to the ‘stupid fucking shit’ Shadow had allegedly done. “What… did you do?”

“I, uh,” Shadow began again, avoiding his eyes, “So what if I, hypothetically, may have accidentally not on purpose at _all_ slipped to Dark Link that we worked together. For Ganon. And you worked for him under your own free will.”

Four winced. “Hypothetically.”

Shadow nodded. “Hypothetically.”

“So this didn’t happen at all.”

Shadow shook his head. “Nope, definitely not.”

Four sighed, accepting his fate. “Do I have _any_ way of getting out of this one?”

Shadow’s eyes shifted to the ground, then to the trees, then to literally everywhere except Four, and he winced. “Yeah, uh, no. He’s staging an assault on you Links tomorrow, in, uh,” he looked at his wrist, furrowing his eyebrows as he realised he was not wearing a watch, then looked up to the sky, “maybe ten hours? And he expects you to join him.”

“Goddesses,” Four sighed, lifting a free hand up to his temples in an attempt to stave off the rapid dread and migraine slowly building up. 

“I _know_ ,” Shadow whined, “I have some regrets, okay?”

Okay, how to fix this situation. How could he _possibly_ get out of this situation?

At best, Four would maybe be able to get the group to move so that Dark Link failed to ambush them—but that was unlikely, considering their suspicions that Dark Link was _causing_ all of this, so he would have full control over wherever they ended up going. 

Maybe Dark Link wouldn't force him to join his side. But if that happened, it would surely still be revealed that he had literally worked for Ganon, which would be…

Inconvenient. That was a word to describe it. It would rather negatively affect his relationship with, oh, maybe _everyone_ in the group.

The truth of it was that Dark Link was going to show up tomorrow, and he was going to reveal everything, and he was _going_ to make Four join him. Which—

—No, he wasn’t thinking of doing this, not again—

—Could work _completely_ in all of their favours.

A smile settled on his face, stretching into a grin to rival Wild’s during his, uh, ‘fishing’. 

“That’s right,” Shadow said slowly, his own face shifting into a grin, “You’ve got the same idea as me, right?”

“Shadow, I don’t know if I hate or love you right now,” Four said.

Shadow shrugged. “I think I deserve both right now,” he said. “So… what’s the plan for tomorrow?”

Four grinned, just _considering_ the possibilities. Considering the chaos he would inevitably cause; considering all of the good that would come of it, and all of the bad too, but despite all of the things he hated about this plan he was going to do it. 

Because as it went—he couldn’t stop Dark Link from doing this. So, he was going to respond with just as much insanity as planned, with even more to add onto that.

“You’ll find out,” Four said, being deliberately vague. “Oh, it’s going to be a _show_.”

(Goddesses, Red was going to _despise_ him later for this. Four wasn’t entirely sure how that worked, because technically he _was_ Red, but it didn’t change that Red would hate him.

Sorry, Red.)

Shadow’s grin somehow managed to widen even further. “I’m looking forward to seeing it.”

* * *

The next day arrived quickly—which _may_ have had something to do with sleep catching up with Four twenty minutes after his talk with Shadow, when the watch switched over to Legend for the remainder of the night—and thus, so did the _fight_.

They were ambushed. Caught by surprise as they travelled to literally nowhere at all. Which was exactly what Four had expected, but it still managed to catch him off-guard enough for nobody to be suspicious as they tore into the group of lizalfos.

After a period of time that was _just_ optimal to make a dramatic entrance—not too short that it was unsurprising, but not too long that everyone was bored and tired by the time it rolled around, and yes, Four had thought a fair bit on this—a shadow appeared.

It twisted and turned in the darkness, morphing from nothing into a sickening semblance of _something_ , and Four forced himself to act shocked while internally he praised the guy for the wonderful entrance that had clearly been set up to intimidate them as much as possible.

He resisted the urge to smirk. It was a shame, then, that his _own_ dramatic entrance was going to steal the show.

“Good afternoon, _heroes_ ,” Dark Link hissed. Four absentmindedly shifted his eyes up to the sky, trusting that everyone was too shocked by the entrance to notice—the sun hadn’t reached its midday point. It was still morning. 

This man was a fraud, and deserved every single bit of upstaging that Four was about to deliver.

“Dark Link,” Legend gritted out, raising his sword. 

Dark cocked his head. “It is wonderful to see you again too, _Hero of Legend_ ,” he taunted. He sighed melodramatically. “Honestly, you’d think these Chosen Heroes would spare a guy a kind greeting. Never meet your Heroes, eh—?”

“What do you want,” Time gritted out, cutting Dark off. 

“Two things,” Dark said simply. “To plunge this world into darkness, and to destroy _each and every one_ of you _heroes_.”

More weapons were levelled rather threateningly at Dark, to which only a confident, mocking smile was given. Dark raised his arms, and the darkness seemed to rise with them, from the shadows a figure appearing—

—Shadow stepped out, a deadly smirk on his face. 

Four internally smirked; the perfect cue for a perfect scene.

He forced his expression, body language, _everything_ to convey a deep dread to the others. “No,” he whispered, horror dripping from his voice. “ _No_ , this can’t—”

He stepped backwards, allowing the faintest glimmer of fear to show on his face.

“Four—?” Hyrule whispered sharply, sending him a worried look. Four ignored him, staring only at Shadow.

“The Hero of the Four Sword,” Dark greeted, his voice taking on a strangely… _inviting_ tone. “Now, I’m told that—”

“I’m _not_ ,” Four hissed, breaking his eyes away from Shadow and glaring at Dark. “I won’t—”

“But,” Shadow interjected, fondness and vulnerability clear on his face. “Don’t you remember the times we had? Don’t you want—”

“—I said I’m _not_ , not again—”

“Four,” Warriors whispered. Four whirled around to see all of the Links staring at him with horror—but Warriors, most of all. “What is he—”

“We had such good times together,” Shadow continued, a fond smile overtaking his face. Four was _so_ glad that Shadow seemed to share even a shred of his acting ability. “Back in those times, when we worked _together_ —”

Audible gasps of shock were heard through the group. 

“—When we both worked for our shared cause, fighting for what’s truly _right_ ,” Shadow said. “A world of darkness. A world of our _own_. Don’t tell me you’ve given up on that dream, have you… _Vio_?”

Externally, he was the perfect portrayal of someone who had had _everything_ in their life come crashing down upon them. Internally, he praised Shadow’s bullshitting skills to the Goddesses and back, and thanked him profusely for giving him the perfect opportunity to truly enact his plan—

—Just like old times.

His hand tightened around the Four Sword, and light bloomed. It flooded every area, every crevice of their surroundings, and Four worried for a moment that he had completely ruined everything by having that light destroy both Shadow and Dark.

Luckily, both of the bastards were still there, as were the four constituents of himself.

Red, on the ground, horror wide in his eyes; Blue, pushed back against the group of Links, anger emanating from his snarl; Green, sword drawn righteously and pointed viciously at Vio; and Vio, kneeling at Dark’s feet, the perfect picture of servitude. In other words—

—Exactly as they had planned. The stage was set and the characters were in position; it was time to _act_.

“No,” Red breathed out, beginning the scene, his voice cracking at the seams. “No, you don’t have to do this, not _again_ —”

Blue bared his teeth. “Vio, you fucking bastard—”  
  
“What the _hell_ is going on?!” Legend shouted. “Four, what are—”

“I’ll explain later,” Green said, not removing his eyes from Vio. “For now, I need to deal with _him_.”

“I’ve failed you, Master,” Vio said quietly, his head bowed to Dark. “I’ve let… them conceal me away, and allowed them to prevent me carrying out my true purpose as a servant of the darkness.”

Green growled. Anger and shock rose from the group of Links. 

“Please, Vio, you don’t have to do this—” Red said.

“Don’t try to reason with him,” Green gritted out, internally hoping that Red wouldn’t take his harsh tone _too_ badly. “You know what he is. He’s a _traitor_.”

Ahead of them, Dark seemed to be almost considering something, and Green’s heart clenched with every second. “How do you plan on redeeming yourself, _Vio_?”

Vio lifted his head, and his lips shifted into a sharp grin. Jealousy welled up within Green—Vio was always so much _better_ at acting evil than the rest of them. No matter what Green did it was never quite as convincing as Vio. 

Though, he supposed, they all had their strengths. Vio could play the backstabbing villain; Red was the somewhat desperate one, with his heart on his sleeve, managing to portray every raw emotion with believability; Blue was the force of resistance, lashing out with anger and raw hurt; and Green was the _hero_. 

He was the righteous, true hero, somewhat blind to the motivations of whoever decided to go against him. Which made this little act all the more convincing.

“Let me deal with my _brothers_ ,” Vio said, malice in his eyes. “Through that I’ll prove myself to you.”

Dark’s lips slid into a smile. “I suppose I can accept that.”

Vio was up on his feet in a moment, glaring at the group—but mostly at Green, though—with all of the hatred he could muster. Which, looking at him, was quite a lot.

“For _years_ ,” Vio began, hatred dripping from his voice, “have you hid me. Locked me away, sealed me within the confines of our shared mind. _Silenced_ me.”

Green glared back at Vio, internally _blessing_ him for the image he was creating—the image of him being a righteous hero who was a little _too_ prejudiced against darkness; a little _too_ convinced that snubbing it out was the best plan of action.

“It was for your own good,” Green replied, knowing that it would give Vio the _exact_ fuel he needed to light their shared fire even further.

Vio scoffed. “For my _own good_ ,” he mocked. “You thought that sealing me would benefit me? That—”

“Vio, _please_ ,” Red interjected, on the verge of tears. Green spared an eye to look over at him, seeing Wind rush over to comfort him, and holding back a smile at both Wind’s brotherly instincts and Red’s ability to sell anything they acted out through his raw emotions. “You don’t have to do this. We just wanted to— all we wanted was to bring you back from Ganon’s side!”

Choking out a bitter laugh and casting his eyes to Red, Vio twisted his lips into a nasty snarl. “You thought that keeping me confined would bring me to the side of light?” he said. Red tried, purposefully failing, to hide himself falling apart at Vio’s words. Vio didn’t let himself be affected one bit. “As _if_. All you succeeded in doing was festering the darkness within me.”

Blue cursed. “Goddess-dammit, Green!” he shouted, anger hot in his voice. “I _told_ you we should have just gotten rid of him, I told you—”

“If we got rid of him,” Red choked out, staring up at Blue with tears in his eyes, “then we wouldn’t ever be whole again! We _need_ Vio, we can’t just—”

“As sweet as all of this is,” Vio interrupted, cocking his head and swirling his portion of the Four Sword menacingly in his hand, “it is high time I actually _carried out_ my duty, isn’t it?”

Vio grinned madly, extending an arm out at Blue—as if on command, his shadow twisted and turned and trapped him, before throwing him roughly onto the ground. A cry came from Blue, and Green’s heart clenched even though he _knew_ it wasn’t enough to hurt him. In the corner of his eye, he could see Dark blink and nod with a sort of pleasant surprise.

He used the worry he felt to fuel his next glare towards Vio. 

“When did you—” Green said, shock infiltrating his glare. No, really—how did he _actually_ do that?

Vio sneered back, raising his sword. “You, oh, _you_ ,” he addressed coldly, not answering the question. He narrowed his eyes. “There will be no magic in our fight. No tricks, and no underhanded strategies or outside interference. We fight one-on-one.”

Green nodded sagely. Outside interference would ruin their plan, as would any use of magic—for it to work as intended they had to fight one-on-one with swords.

“You’re doubting _my_ honour?” Green challenged, raising his sword and glaring at Vio. “Between us, you’re the one more likely to cheat.”

In the corner of his eye, he saw Shadow’s red eyes in the darkness, and a part of him realised—

—Oh. _Oh_. Vio hadn’t learned dark magic overnight, no; Shadow had been doing it. When did they get so coordinated?

(Not that Green would have been at _all_ surprised if Vio turned out to be a dark mage at any point, really. It was exactly in his character to just _do_ something like that on a whim.)

“The _hero_ ,” Vio mocked, advancing and forcing Green back into the present. Green stood his ground. “Always the brave one, always the righteous one… And yet, you fail to understand or even see that your side is not the only one worth devoting yourself to. The thing about being _righteous_ is that it doesn’t always constitute being _right_.”

Green snarled and _charged_. Vio met his blade with his own, locking them together, and throwing their blades to the side. 

They had a well-choreographed dance, one born from sparring time and time again, one prepared meticulously in the chance that something like this would ever come up again—knowing that one day, it would.

Green landed a lucky slice into an opening on Vio’s torso, sending him stumbling back as red spread on his tunic. Vio slashed and stabbed with calculated ruthlessness at every opening he had, never leaving Green a chance to even breathe with all of the hits he was forced to dodge. He cried in pain at a slice on his arm; grunted at a kick on his shin, glaring at Vio for the slight against their established rules and understanding why everyone else hated him using that tactic; was forced to his knees from a wound on his torso, sending red spilling everywhere.

He could hear the Links cry his name, rooting him on, worry rising in their voices every second. Green hoped he wasn’t worrying them _too_ much—the thing about the red was, well… 

It wasn’t _actually_ blood. Just some stage stuff they had on hand most of the time, should the need ever arrive for them to put on such a show. 

...Just in case. 

“We need to involve ourselves,” Green heard Warriors say. His heart shot into his throat—if he got involved, this whole plan would fall apart—

“No,” Blue gritted out, “This is between _them_. You can’t involve yourself.”

“Look at him,” Sky whispered, somehow audible through the tension. “Will he really be—?”

Red glared up at Sky through tears begging to fall. “Don’t underestimate Green!” he shouted. “Just— trust him. He can do this, okay?”

Green let himself visibly relax at Red’s declaration, suddenly conscious of how he was looking to the rest of the Links. He hoped this was convincing. Well, he was pretty convinced that he was convincing everyone, so he supposed he didn’t have much to worry about, but still—

“Hurry this up, would you?” Dark said nonchalantly. “I have to say, watching you do absolutely nothing isn’t how I imagined spending my time.”

Vio winced, and nodded. “Of course.”

Vio charged in once again. Blades clashed, clanging through the air; grunts and cries and vague curses broke the tense silence that had descended upon them; they resumed their dance. 

In the corner of his eye, Green could see Red break and hide into Wind’s arms. His heart clenched in sorrow, even though part of him knew it wasn’t entirely real, his eyes trained on the sight—

—Vio used that moment of distraction to send him tumbling onto the ground with a final strike, drawing ‘blood’. Green cried out in pain and glared at Vio, hiding the glare under a layer of weakness, pretending that he was about to give into the unconsciousness that wasn’t overcoming him any moment.

Vio glared, standing over him. “That’s the thing with you _heroes_ ,” he sneered. Green adored how convincing Vio’s act was. “You care so much about the things that are irrelevant—”

—A few feet away, Red gasped, Wind glared, and Blue shouted—

“—That you completely forget about the real threat _right in front of your eyes_ ,” Vio finished, paying no mind to the reactions his words had gained.

Green snarled. “The people I lo—” he said, cutting himself off to feign a wave of dizziness, “The people I love will _never_ be irrelevant.”

Vio scoffed. “If that’s the truth you choose to believe, then so be it,” he sneered. He looked adamantly over his shoulder, glaring at _something_ in the distance, before raising his sword and pointing its tip over Green’s chest. He raised the sword, and plunged it down—

—Green let out a scream of pain, the sounds of horror from the Links sickeningly audible in his mind. Among them he could hear Red’s cry and Blue’s horror, Hyrule’s gasp and Twilight’s broken denial. Vio’s scowl twisted into satisfaction, and Dark chuckled.

...Green wished he could tell everyone that Vio faked it. Again, just like he had with Shadow. Except the blade had actually gone through his stomach—there was just _no pain_.

What the heck had Vio done?

Shadows wisped off of the end of Vio’s blade, and were Green not slipping his eyes shut dramatically he would have been looking over to Shadow. That was one hell of a trick.

He could feel the fake blood blossoming across his stomach, and internally he winced. Would this wash out? He really hoped this stuff wouldn't stain. He _liked_ this tunic, dammit. 

“Good work, _Vio_ ,” Dark drawled. Green cracked his eyes open as weakly as he could pretend to, seeing Dark place a hand on his back and lead him off. “I was planning on destroying the rest of them _personally_ now, but… I do believe you’ve done that enough, hmm?”

Vio cocked his head, smirking. “It was nothing they didn’t bring upon themselves.”

Shadow appeared next to him, slinging an arm over Vio’s shoulder. “I missed you, bud,” he said softly, genuinely. Green’s heart softened. At least those two were together again.

A portal appeared, and the three of them strolled through before it faded into nothing. In the next instant _everyone_ was crowding around Green.

Hyrule had his hands to his stomach, glowing with the familiar warmth of his healing magic—

—Green sat up without any issues, pushing Hyrule away. “There’s no need for any of that,” he said, momentarily forgetting that he had literally just acted dead for a good few minutes. 

Hyrule blinked. “Wh— What?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”

“Four—uh, Green? You were impaled through the stomach,” Wild pointed out. “Even on my terms that’s pretty not okay.”

Green winced. Did it really look that bad?

…Good. It meant they had succeeded in securing Vio’s place with Dark, and also in their side mission to make everything as _dramatic_ as they possibly could. He grinned.

Blue choked out a laugh. “Green, you’re a dramatic fucking bastard,” he said. “You did not have to go _that far_.”

Green shrugged. “Vio went _that far_ first. Did you not listen to a single word he was saying?”

“I’d say Shadow started it all,” Red interjected, pulling himself out of the hug Wind had had him in, drying his eyes in an instant. Wind sent him a scandalised look, and Red breathed out a sigh of relief, not having seen it. “You all stress me _out_ when you do that. Please, if you’re being dramatic can you not fight so much?”

Green winced. “Sorry,” he said.

Red shook him off.

Legend sat down firmly in front of him. “Quick question, _Four_ ,” he said firmly, “Because we’re all thinking it. What the _fuck_ was that?”

Green winced. “Uh.”

“Yeah, no, really,” Warriors said, “Working for Dark Link?”

Green averted his eyes. “Um.”

“I think we need an explanation,” Time finished.

“Er,” Green said. “Blue, you explain.”

Blue blinked. “What? No, fuck that, you’re the responsible part of us. You do it.”

“But I’m grievously injured!” Green protested, gesturing to the fake blood coating his tunic. He really, really hoped this would wash out.

Blue raised an eyebrow. Green deflated, and looked to Red for help, wishing that Vio was here to shut everyone up with some fancy words and an even fancier explanation. Red avoided his gaze and Green accepted his fate. “So, uh—”

And thus began Green’s tale of, well, everything. He began with the Four Sword, and how it splits him into four different parts; and then he moved onto Shadow, and how he began as a follower of Ganon but never was really devoted, and ended up joining their side in the end; and finished with Vio’s tale, mentioning that he had first betrayed them to work with Shadow, knowing that he would be of more use fighting from inside. Green really wished they they hadn’t collectively decided to hide everything from the Links.

“So, uh, we have a spy now!” Green finished, giving his best impression of a winning smile accompanied by jazz hands. Eight blank faces stared back at him. His jazz hands halted in the air. “No?”

“I don’t think you realise just how many emotions you put us through,” Twilight said, his eyes strangely dead inside. “We’ll consider it after we sleep.”

Seven nods and grunts of agreement followed. Green looked up at the sky—it was barely dinnertime. They hadn’t been _that_ stressful…

...Right?

* * *

“That,” Shadow said, barely holding in a laugh, “Was _fucking_ hilarious.”

Vio shrugged, a smile playing at his lips. “What can I say? It _was_ one of our better performances.”

“Damn right,” Shadow agreed. “I was so _mad_ when you did the fake death thing to me, too… But seeing it and knowing it was fake, and watching everyone’s reactions? Beautiful.”

“It was…” Vio mused. “I do love that trick.”

“So, ready to play this fucking fool who’s convinced we’re both on his side?”

Vio grinned. “Absolutely.”

**Author's Note:**

> (The best part about doing this as a live write was watching everyone go INSANE. God, I was thriving. It was truly beautiful.)
> 
> hey im anourth and vio and shadow make my heart _melt_
> 
> **EDIT: AHHHHH arwen-doodles over on**[tumblr](https://arwen-doodles.tumblr.com/)/[instagram](https://www.instagram.com/arwen_doodles/) made some art based on this fic!!  
> [go check it out](https://arwen-doodles.tumblr.com/post/625022850851586048/four-doodles-bc-i-love-they-also-because-i)!! it's so good, oh my gosh,,


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